Centerpieces - Plants vs Zombies!

Photo a la Tuan Tran

During another romp through Hobby Lobby, I got the idea to make a Plants vs Zombies centerpiece. Ben and I played the first one and second one together and we really love the game.

The lawnmowers

You probably want to buy/make these lawnmowers first so that you can be sure to get a base that fits.

For the lawnmowers, you have some options...

• I googled around and there was a couple of websites that actually sell miniature lawnmower toys. They're expensive but more realistic looking.
• Custom ordering LEGO pieces to make your own tiny lawnmower
• When I googled "lego lawnmower", some ebay users were selling some pre-made ones for about $4 each (not including shipping).

I chose to go with custom order LEGOs (I didn't search for lego lawnmower when I was looking into this so I never saw the ebay option...). I watched this youtube video online on How to Make a Mini Lawnmower. I thought they looked cute but unfortunately, they require getting custom pieces online (I tried walking into a LEGO store but they don't carry this variety in there). The video doesn't tell you what each piece is so I had to purchase these based on the images on the website. You may want to do some research to see if it's cheaper to buy some on ebay/lego website or just try to find everything on ebay.

Image:	Quantity:	Color:	Name:	Find it:	Purpose:
	1	Red	Plate 2x2	Lego website Search Plates	The base
	1	Black	Plate 1x2 W.Stick	Lego website Search Plates, Special	Attaches to handle bar
	1	Grey	Lamp Holder	Lego website Search Plates, Special	Looks like engine exhaust
	4	Red	Lamp Holder	ebay	Holds the "wheels"
	1	Grey	Round Plate 1x1	Lego website Search Plates, Special	Covers the last bump on the base to support the engine top
	4	Black	Round Plate 1x1	Lego website Search Plates, Special	Black "wheels"
	1	Grey	Flat tile Round 2x2	ebay	Engine top. Make sure you get the 2x2!
	1	Grey	Bad Robot Arm	ebay	Handle bar
	1	Grey	T Piece	Lego website Search Technic	Handle

Your final piece will look something like this!

I wanted to make sure these lawnmowers stay in place so I grabbed some paperclips, unwrapped it and stuck one over one of the wheels into the foam.

It's not really necessary but it'll be helpful to not lose your lawnmowers and to keep them in place.

The base

The next step is to find a container that will fit your needs. I wanted something relatively square that wasn't going to be too expensive. While at Michaels, I spotted this paper container for ($5.99). It's a good size, not too expensive and the right shape. I also grabbed this green foam in the flower section ($12.99). Since it's mostly grass in the game, this will make coloring it easier. 

Normally on a 40% off one item, I would have gotten about $5 off this foam but this week was a 20% your bill coupon, so I only saved 3.80 off the two items. I could have waited until next week for the 40% coupon but I'm too impatient.

Tip: foam is not really meant for painting. It flakes a lot and creates this hard, glittery dust. Make sure you do this over a hard table that's easy to clean up. A wet paper towel will pick those up easily.

The first thing I did was carve the foam to fit inside the box. After I cut it to size, I measured it. Since you might buy a different container, your piece might be a different size so you'll have to measure it properly. My foam piece came out to be around 30cm. Since Plants Vs Zombies has 5 rows, each row will be around 6cm for me. I marked every 6cm with a sewing pin on opposite sides and then tied a piece of string so that I could have a line. I repeated this for all 5 rows.

Looking at the Plants vs Zombie picture, it looks like they're not really squares but rectangles. I measured the other size and it came out to around 32 cm. I decided to do 8 columns at 4cm each. Using the same method, I marked each with a pin on each side and then tied a piece of string. In the end, I get a nice outline of what I want to color.

So I just start painting (and by painting, I mean just dabbing it with paint)! I started by painting every other row. Then I start filling in the rectangles with random shades of green. You want each rectangle to be different from the one next to it so that you can see the difference. This is what it looks like after I removed the string. I may redo the pins and put in some sort of green string so that the grid is more prominent. For now, I feel like I can see it but the room will probably be dark and people won't be able to see it well in the reception room.

The foam wasn't wide enough so I filled it with some leftover grass

I left two columns blank because that will be the concrete where the lawn mowers are. Painting isn't easy because foam doesn't absorb well (that's why I started with the green foam) so I bought a really cheap piece of white felt (around 50 cents) and placed it on top. The nice thing about felt is that it sticks to this flower foam, kind of like velcro.

The plants

For the plants, I'm using some oven bake clay. Shop around for the cheapest clay. I found small colored ones for about $1.50 each at Michael's while they were about $2.50 at Hobby Lobby. Luckily I went back to Michaels with the 20% off coupon and bought 5 (essentially getting one for free).

For the sunflower, I rolled a ball and then cut out "petals". You want small sharp scissors. Make a small, angled cut into the clay and then gently pull the clay up a little so that the petal comes out. Repeat all the way around for a flower look. Make sure to include the leaves and eyebrows before baking.

Toothpicks: As you can see, I used toothpicks to prop them up and will also serve as the plant stem. Note: I tried to use a green sharpie to color these toothpicks later but couldn't reach the base where the head was. You should either color these toothpicks first (before you stick it in the head) or get the already colored toothpicks.

The tricky part is baking them.  If you lay these on the side, you will get a flat bump on one end. If you're fine with that, then ignore this step. I ended up using an old disposable pie platter, turning it upside down and puncturing holes in them to prop them up. Since it's a flimsy foil, the heavy heads sometimes leans over to one side. If you're afraid of them touching each other, just leave more space in-between each hole so that they won't touch each other even if they lean.

The zombies

If you're creative, feel free to create some zombies. I used the Plants vs Zombies image and customized it to look like us. I reflected the image and taped them back to back (on a toothpick) so that you can see the zombies from either side.

Centerpieces - Sakura Tree

One of my biggest obsessions has always been Sakura trees (Cherry Blossom trees). Everytime I go into Michaels, I always end up buying some fake flower branches that remind me of Sakura.

So as I was walking around Michaels one day, I got the sudden idea to make a Sakura centerpiece with Totoro. My Neighbor Totoro is a Studio Ghibli film that was drawn by my favorite artist, Hayao Miyazaki. He made well known animated movies like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki's Delivery Service. Hayao Miyazaki hand draws all his scenes which makes him even more amazing. He has this amazing ability to draw really whimsical, fantasy nature. Whenever I think of his work, I imagine lots of trees, moss, flowers..etc.

These prices aren't completely accurate because they are full-priced. I had a 20% off Michaels coupon (this is around end of June or early July). The employee there told me that they are cleaning the inventory to start stocking up on Fall items so a lot of things were on sale. It might also explain the 20% off my entire bill because usually its just 40% off ONE item. So for future shoppers, end of June/early July is a good time to shop at Michaels!

Items:

• A moss covered vase. $8 This doesn't have to be moss covered. I just felt like it really reminded me of Studio Ghibli (the film studio that made Totoro) so I splurged on this.
• A tall foam cone as the base for my tree $7
• A egg-shaped foam ball for my Totoro $4
• Some Sakura branches (I bought three here but I ended up getting two more because it wasn't full enough) $20
• The Model Magic Clay is from an old Halloween project. The clay inside was separated in three bags so that the rest didn't dry up when I opened the box.
• Rocks to fill in the vase and also to anchor the bottom so that the top doesn't tip the centerpiece over $3 (can pick these up somewhere if you really don't want to spend the money).
• Paint 
• Fabric paint (I'll explain later) $4

I carved the cone with a kitchen knife to mimic a tree trunk so it's not perfectly smooth. I was afraid of breaking the foam by making it too thin so I only really carved one side. I felt like if I really needed to make it more "bumpy" I'll just add more clay on top to create it.

I rolled out some Model Magic clay with a rolling pin to smooth it down and wrapped the cone foam. I left it alone for a day to let it harden and noticed that it was starting to crack around the grooves. I tried smoothing it out before it completely hardened but the next day, the crack returned.

My original idea was to carve some bark lines but the clay would crack and peel. So I thought, what was thick and bumpy? Fabric paint! 

I could use this stuff to create my bark lines AND fill in that annoying crack that keeps forming.

At first, I was going to make the paint lines really close to give it really subtle texture but it merged together and became a blob. So I started separating it more so that it would have more distinct detailing. I just free-styled it with the bark lines. As long you you're continuous and throw in some loops, it should look pretty good.

The flower branches have both thick and thin wires inside. I had to use a wire cutter to get through the thick one (which is mostly at the bottom of the branches). The top mostly has a thinner wire through it but it's still easier to use a wire cutter since the skin of the branch is pretty thick too. 

Then I used regular scissors to cut away at the skin to expose just wire at the end. This helps you stick it into the cone foam easily. It also allows you to rearrange your flowers in case you don't like where the placement is.

If you look again at the picture with the "bark"... I just stuck the flowers in at the top. I left it for a couple of days to see how I felt about it and the more I saw it, the more I hated it. It looked like some sort of Tree Trunk Vase where it all bunched at the top. It didn't look like a natural tree. Luckily, I could pull out the branches and re-arrange them.

I decided the best thing to do is to make more large branches. In order to do that, I staggered the flowers more and added clay to the base where it connected so that it looked like a large branch coming from the trunk. I tried to do this a couple of times until I thought the tree looked more natural.

After I let this dry for about a day, I repeated creating bark lines with the fabric paint. Since the new clay wasn't sticking to the old clay, I used the fabric paint to fill in the gaps inbetween so that I would get a smooth transaction. It also helped serve as glue to make sure the new clay wouldn't move.

It's time to paint! This is 5 flower branches. Honestly, I'd love to put more in but I didn't want to break the bank on just this one centerpiece. That's why I cut the branches into smaller ones and spread them out.

When you paint, just make sure to match the color of the branches so that you don't have to paint that too. You'll really have to experiment with colors here since these branches are kind of greyish brown with some green tint.

Just a pointer, make sure to make plenty of paint. There's nothing more annoying than finally getting that perfect tint and then running out of paint halfway.

As you can see on the left, I started painting my tree. The very obvious bark lines are becoming really subtle like I originally wanted.

And viola! a big Sakura tree!


As I mentioned before, I used the fabric paint to connect the clay to the main frame. If you look at the left side of the tree, I obviously missed a spot so there's a big gap under the branch. The paint is still wet so I'll have to wait until this dries, apply some more fabric paint, wait until THAT dries, mix some new paint and then re-paint. Stinks but that's what I get for not fully checking before I painted.

All in all, I'm very happy with the tree so far.

Technically I could have stopped here but I was really inspired to make this a Totoro scene.

Using an egg foam ball and some more air-dry clay, I made a small Totoro. This is not a good picture of it but hopefully my photographer got some pictures of it at the wedding.

 

It's sitting in a pre-mossed base that I found in Michaels. I filled it with rocks to anchor it down and then topped it with a circular foam base and some more moss that I glued to it.

Not surprisingly, this was my favorite centerpiece. Not only because it was a Sakura tree but I liked how everything turned out... the subtle bark, the natural tree look, the moss...etc.

Mini Doe and Ben

I bought a Silhouette Cameo with the intention of using it for my invitations. I did not know how yet but I wanted to use it. Do your research before you purchase. Amazon had a bunch of different "kits" and packages. Some were worth the money and some were cheaper if you buy everything separately.

Anyway, there are limitations to this printer so do all your research first!

First, it is NOT a laser cutting printer! Do NOT expect very detailed, elaborate cuts like these:

 

After coming to terms with that (and many many failed projects), I decided I needed to do a more simple cut. After feeling defeated for a while, I suddenly had the idea to make mini Doe and Ben. I had to plan out each shape that I would need:

• Ben's Skin
• Ben's Hair
• Ben's Hat
• Ben's Shirt
• Ben's Pants
• Ben's Shoes
• Doe's Skin
• Doe's Hair
• Doe's Shirt
• Doe's pants
• Bench

I purchased all my paper from LCI Paper. I like this company because you can buy samples instead of having to commit to a package of 25 or 50. This is a great way to test out the thickness of your paper as well as making sure it's the color you want.

I printed our faces on the skin paper first. You need to plan this out with photoshop and then the Silhouette Cameo software.

Then you'll have to recreate your shapes in the Silhouette Cameo program for the other shapes (hair, shirts, pants). There are lots of tutorials online if you need help.

Before I cut the final pieces, I test printed on normal paper. This is the results after coloring it in.

Ben couldn't stop laughing because of how goofy his face looked but I was just doodling really quick. This was a test print/cut anyway! =[

(If you noticed... I changed Ben's pants shape because I thought this one looked weird. And I gave him shoes because Ben complained that he didn't have any shoes)

If possible, order extra paper for any mistakes or errors. Being the genius that I am, I resized my shapes and saved it in a 2nd folder. Then I proceeded to cut out the skin paper and took a break. After my break (of a couple of weeks), I cut out the other shapes FROM THE WRONG FOLDER. Both of our pants were too small. Luckily I caught my error before cutting all the paper but it meant I had to reorder blue paper for pants.

Based on the thickness of your paper, you'll want to adjust the blade number AND the setting on the Silhouette Cameo program. Sometimes, you might want to run it twice so that you definitely get the clean cut.

Here's a cutout of my hair..

The assembling wasn't hard since I did it while watching TV.

Here's the final product after using some tacky glue, twine and a white pen.

Afterwards, I purchased a stock photo to help design my invitation, punched holes and attached. 

This invitation was "too thick" so I had to pay an extra $0.15 on top of my wedding stamp ($0.70 each) per invitation...  The invitations were a huge hit though so I guess it was worth it.

Here's a quick video of the assembly:

Centerpieces - Craps!

Since our friends love the Craps table so much, I decided to dedicate a centerpiece to that.

While waiting for Ben to finish painting, I decided to start a new project at If an Elephant Can Paint. I found this flat plate and decided that I will make that my Craps table surface.

Unfired piece

Fired piece

I painted it green and then outlined everything in white. Since I'm not a pro at Craps, I had to google an image. Hopefully it's pretty close to the tables we see in the casinos.

To finish up this centerpiece, I made some mini dice from red oven clay. After baking it and letting it cool, I painted the white dots with some white paint. To add to the effect, I bought some poker cards shaped like chips and spread it out on the table.

Centerpieces - Den Den Mushi Ben & Doe

Today we went to go paint some snails!

That sounds weird so I'll explain. I recently got an email from If An Elephant Can Paint showcasing some new items that came in. One of them was this snail and I thought it would be perfect for a Den Den Mushi centerpiece for our wedding.

For those of you who don't know (and I imagine that's a lot)... den den mushi are snails used for communication in the anime One Piece. Each snail looks like the person that is speaking through the den den. (see below for examples)

They ended up being a decently large size which was perfect since I wanted two of them to make a centerpiece. Ben and I picked up two and we started painting. Ben chose to paint the snail shell red since that's his favorite color. I chose to use an overcoat that would kind of make it looks like cherry blossoms, which is my favorite.












The nice part is that you can place a votive candle inside the snail. That'll light them up nicely once it gets dark at the reception.

This is what they look like unfired. Lol. Before they are fired up, the glaze gets really light so it's hard to tell that my snail is even painted. It would have been nice to have them smiling but the shape of this snail makes them look like they're frowning anyway so we decided to just go with it.






To complete Ben's snail, I bought a doll-sized cowboy hat and cut it into a baseball cap. Unfortunately it came in a set of 4 but I figured I can either use them for other centerpieces or I will get 4 attempts at a passable hat.








I attempted to paint the Adidas logo on it since that is Ben's signature look. The first attempt (right) was with a regular white out stick. The slightly furry surface soaked up the paint more than I wanted to and I had very little control.

The second attempt (left) had some more experimenting to it. First I tried to scrape the surface with an x-acto knife to get some of that furry stuff off. Then I taped it and tried to pull off any loose fibers. Then I just dabbed on a little white-out liquid, then spreading it out with a x-acto knife. That gave me more control and got more defined lines in there. This particular white-out liquid is made of fibers though so sometimes I had trouble spreading it.

To complete my snail, I bought some small black yarn for hair. It was 0.40 each but I didn't want a big ball of yarn for $5-6 when I was only going to use a little. I also got some frilly white fabric that I will make into a "veil" for my snail. Tip: Look around the Clearance Fabric section. Sometimes when they have excess/leftover fabric, they will package it up in a bundle and put it for sale. I got my veil fabric for just $0.60!

My snail next to a plate showing the special glaze crystals

I just picked up our snails and this is what it looks like, all fired up to go! I'm a little sad that I don't have enough crystals on my snail... it was supposed to look like sakura petals. Oh well... Everything else came out well.








 
I also photoshopped some screenshots of denden and printed them.


















 
And here is the finished pieces!

From our awesome photographer: Chris Kim Photo

From our awesome photographer: Chris Kim Photo

Tiramisu

So I decided to make Tiramisu for Christmas dinner and used this recipe that I thought was pretty easy.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/classic-tiramisu/

UNFORTUNATELY, the recipe called for 2 (12 ounce) packages of lady fingers which is about 4 times more ladyfingers than you need so I got a LOT of practice in.

This is the final recipe that I used based off this link and the reviews.

Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
1 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 (3 ounce) packages ladyfingers
1/2 cup water
instant coffee
1/3 cup coffee flavored liqueur (optional)
unsweetened cocoa powder
semi-sweet chocolate (optional)

Recipe:

1. Heat the water and make "strong" coffee. I added about 3 heaping teaspoons. Set aside to cool.
2. Place the sugar in a double boiler and add a little bit of water (like 2 Tbsp) and mix over medium heat until sugar melts and it doesn't feel grainy.
   
3. Add egg yolk and mix until thick and lemon colored.
4. Add mascarpone cheese to mixture and beat until combined. Put in fridge for now.
   It doesn't look like it'll mix well but just keep mixing.

   

5. Use a hand blender to beat whipped cream to stiff peaks.
   

6. Gently fold yolk mixture into whipped cream. Keep folding until the color is uniform with no streaks of white or yellow.

   

7. Add coffee liqueur to strong coffee mixture (optional)
8. Line bottom of pan with lady fingers. I used a cheesecake spring pan so that I can easily open it later. You can also use a glass pan or bowl.
   

9. Brush coffee mixture on top of ladyfingers. This is less messy than dipping the ladyfingers.
   

10. Add half of the cream on top of the ladyfingers.
11. Repeat by lining ladyfingers again, brush coffee and top with remaining cream.
    

    

12. Using a sifter, cover with cocoa powder
    

13. (Optional) Top with chocolate curls/shavings. Here's a good video of a simple method. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93L6KuMHhPk
14. Let it rest in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. Enjoy!